University of California

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public research university located in the Westwood district of Los Angeles, California, United States. It offers 337 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines. UCLA has an approximate enrollment of 30,000 undergraduate and 12,000 graduate students, and has 119,000 applicants for Fall 2016, including transfer applicants, the most applicants for any American university.

The university is organized into five undergraduate colleges, seven professional schools, and four professional health science schools. The undergraduate colleges are the College of Letters and Science; Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science (HSSEAS); School of the Arts and Architecture; School of Theater, Film and Television; and School of Nursing. Thirteen Nobel laureates, one Fields Medalist, and three Turing Award winners have been faculty, researchers, or alumni. Among the current faculty members, 55 have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, 28 to the National Academy of Engineering, 39 to the Institute of Medicine, and 124 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The university was elected to the Association of American Universities in 1974. UCLA student-athletes Bruins have won 126 national championships, including 113 NCAA team championships, 251 Olympic medals, more than any other university. More than 140 companies are based on technologies developed in UCLA.

• UCLA School of the Arts & Architecture

  As the premiere public arts school in the USA, the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture (UCLA Arts) plays a vital role in the cultural and artistic life of the campus and the broader community. Guiding its mission is the belief that the arts are not only an essential part of the cognitive, critical, inquisitive life of a public research university, but the practice and presence of the arts are a cornerstone of the creative, innovative thinking and collaborative approaches that the 21st century demands.

  The UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture’s (UCLA Arts) academic departments include:

  • Architecture & Urban Design
  • Art
  • Design Media Arts
  • World Arts and Cultures/Dance

In 1919 the Vermont Avenue campus of the University of California (known as UC's "Southern Branch") opened, offering two-year undergraduate teachers-training programs. The original four buildings were the College Library (now Powell Library), Royce Hall, the Physics-Biology Building (now the Humanities Building), and the Chemistry Building (now Haines Hall), arrayed around a quadrangular courtyard on the 400 acre (1.6 km²) campus. The first undergraduate classes on the new campus were held in 1929 with 5,500 students. After further lobbying by alumni, faculty, administration and community leaders, UCLA was permitted to award the master's degree in 1933, and the doctorate in 1936, against continued resistance from UC Berkeley.

• In 1938 UCLA awards its first Ph.D. degree.
• In 1950 Alumnus Ralph Bunche ’27 becomes the first person of color to win the Nobel Peace Prize and in 1960 prof. Willard Libby of the UCLA College is awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• The first open-heart surgery in the western United States was performed at UCLA Medical Center in 1956.
• UCLA Ethnic Studies Centers were established in 1969, among the first in the U.S. The same year UCLA becomes the first node on the ARPANET and Professor Leonard Kleinrock sends the first message so the Internet was born.
• In 2010 UCLA exceeds $1 billion in competitively awarded research grants and contracts in a single year.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2015–2016 ranks UCLA 16th in the world for academics and 13th in the world for reputation. In 2015/16, UCLA is ranked 12th in the world (10th in North America) by the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) and 27th in the 2015/16 QS World University Rankings. In 2015, the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) ranked the university 15th in the world based on quality of education, alumni employment, quality of faculty, publications, influence, citations, broad impact, and patents.  In 2015, the Institute of International Education ranked UCLA 8th among American universities with the most international students. The 2016 U.S. News & World Report Best Global University Rankings report ranked UCLA 8th in the world.

The campus is located near prominent entertainment venues such as the Getty Center, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and Walt Disney Concert Hall. UCLA offers classical orchestras, intramural sports, and over 800 student organizations. UCLA is also home to more than 70 fraternities and sororities, which represent 13% of the undergraduate population. Phrateres, a non-exclusive social-service club for women was founded here in 1924 by the Dean of Women, Helen Matthewson Laughlin. Students and staff participate in dinghy sailing, surfing, windsurfing, rowing, and kayaking at the UCLA Marina Aquatic Center in Marina del Rey.

UCLA's first contemporary a cappella group, Awaken A Cappella, was founded in 1992. The all-male group, Bruin Harmony, has enjoyed a successful career since its inception in 2006, portraying a collegiate a cappella group in The Social Network (2010), while the ScatterTones finished in second-place in the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella in 2011–2013. Other a cappella groups include Signature, Random Voices, Medleys, YOUTHphonics, Deviant Voices, Awechords and Cadenza. YOUTHphonics and Medleys are UCLA's only nonprofit service-oriented a cappella groups.

There are also a variety of cultural organizations on campus, such as Nikkei Student Union (NSU), Japanese Student Association (JSA), Association of Chinese Americans (ACA), Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA), Chinese Music Ensemble (CME), Chinese Cultural Dance Club (CCDC), Taiwanese American Union (TAU), Taiwanese Student Association (TSA), Hong Kong Student Society (HKSS), Hanoolim Korean Cultural Awareness Group, Samahang Pilipino, Vietnamese Student Union (VSU), and Thai Smakom. Many of these organizations have an annual "culture night" consisting of drama and dance which raises awareness of culture and history to the campus and community.

For nearly 100 years, UCLA has been a pioneer, persevering through impossibility, turning the futile into the attainable. Its campus, faculty and students are driven by optimism. And it has fueled every accomplishment, allowing us to redefine what's possible, time after time.

This can-do perspective has brought us 13 Nobel Prizes, 12 MacArthur Fellows, more NCAA titles than any university and more Olympic medals than most nations. Our faculty and alumni helped create the Internet and pioneered reverse osmosis. And more than 140 companies have been created based on technology developed at UCLA.